HP Compaq 6730b

Pros: Strong security features with good battery life
Cons: A little on the heavy side if it’s going with you on the road everywhere
RRP: $1,999
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

At 2.69kg it’s not the lightest machine to be carrying around, but the 15.4in screen gives it enough versatility to be used at a desk, or on the lap, wherever you find yourself. Intel’s Centrino 2 platform is at the heart of this model, providing it with a host of features. As standard, these include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and an Intel Mobile GMA 4500HD graphics chip, as well as a Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4Ghz “next generation” CPU from Intel’s 45nm (nanometre) range – offering  a 1066MHz FSB (front side bus).  With just a 3MB L2 cache this CPU is not the top of the range, but it’s still a top performer and has more than enough power to handle business applications. A single 2GB DDR2 RAM module is installed, which is plenty, but it’s upgradable to 8GB should there be a need to.

The one thing this notebook does have in droves is security features. Beyond the stock fingerprint scanner comes HP’s ProtectTools application, which bundles a number of different security features together into one manageable package. These include features like hard drive and email encryption,  a file sanitiser for ‘scrubbing’ away sensitive data permanently, and backup facilities using HP’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM) - a hardware-level security chip. The Express Card slot also doubles as a Smart Card reader. This should be plenty to give protection to any sensitive material, of which the HP Compaq 6730b offers 250GB of hard drive space to store.

Its 6-cell lithium-ion battery provides a good amount of uptime. Using a DVD movie to drain the battery took three hours on the default “HP Optimised” power setting, a solid performance considering the power drains of DVD playback.